Jeb Bush PAC Fined $400,000 for Soliciting Donations from Chinese Billionaires

A political action committee created in support of Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign for President is being handed one of the biggest fines in FEC history for taking money from a Chinese billionaire.

Right to Rise USA took the donation, which is said to have been $1.3 million, from two Chinese nationals- Gordon Tang and Huaidan Chen, executives at a company called American Pacific International Capital. Neil Bush, a brother of Jeb and President George W. Bush, is a board member of the company, asked the executives for the donation, according to reporting from Mother Jones.

The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Committee in regards to the large donation after reporting from The Intercept highlighted the potential violations of election laws that occurred through the donation.

After litigation proceedings, the Jeb Bush PAC has agreed to pay $390,000 in fines, and APIC will pay $550,000. The total sum represents the largest fine ever issued by the FEC for foreign election interference.

Right to Rise spent more money than any Super PAC in American election history in support of Jeb Bush’s disastrous presidential campaign. It was led by GOPe political operative Mike Murphy, who spends his days in 2019 on Twitter lamenting what he perceives as a Russian conspiracy puppeteering Donald Trump’s election and presidency, in addition to the decline of traditional liberal politicians such as the Bushes in American politics.

Murphy seems much less boisterous in denouncing the Chinese election interference he abetted as chief strategist of Right to Rise, despite evidence for it being clear and substantial, unlike the Russian conspiracy liberals on the right and left have become addicted to.

In an ideal world, we’d be beyond even speaking about the Bushes and their political network, having politely recognized them as an element of American political history that is relegated to the past.

However, the hypocrisy of associated operatives like Murphy in denouncing fictitious Russian plots while chairing a PAC that accepted millions from Chinese companies means this legacy political dynasty can’t simply fade into history.

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